The invention relates generally to surgical drapes and more specifically relates to three-dimensional drapes for covering appendages of a patient.
Various techniques have been used in the past to cover the feet or other appendages of a patient during a surgical procedure. Three commonly used techniques include drapes having tubes, flaps, and envelope-type shapes. Each of these types of drapes have problems associated with them particularly when these types of drapes are used when a patient is positioned in the "low" lithotomy position and the entire patient's body needs to be covered.
For instance, surgical drapes that are in the form of tubes to cover a patient's feet and legs can be difficult to put on a patient using sterile techniques. Although tube-shaped drapes provide very good coverage over a patient's legs, the drapes are somewhat inflexible in their use. Also, since the tubes are generally separate and distinct from the drapes that are used to cover the rest of the patient, gaps may exist between the tube-shaped drapes and other drapes covering the patient. This can be highly undesirable from a sterility perspective. Another difficulty with tube-shaped drapes is that they are relatively small in size which can present problems when the entire patient needs to be draped.
Flap-type drapes are simply flat drapes which can be spread over the legs or other appendages of a patient. This type of drape can be particularly difficult to maintain in position over the curved surfaces of an appendage. Thus, flap-type drapes are generally more susceptible to sliding problems than tube-shaped drapes. In addition, when flap-type drapes are used to cover various appendages of the patient, it is typical that multiple drapes will be used. Again this presents a problem of gaps between drapes which is undesirable from a sterility perspective.
Many of the problems discussed above have been at least partially overcome through the use of envelope-shaped drapes. A sample of an envelope-shaped drape is illustrated as prior art in FIG. 1. As can be seen from the figure, an envelope-shaped drape is essentially a two-dimensional drape. When the drape is used to cover an appendage, the appendage is tucked into the inside of the envelope. However, since it is not desirable to touch or move a patient as a drape is being placed on the patient, an envelope-shaped drape can be difficult to place over a patient using sterile techniques. Generally, in order to place an envelope-shaped drape over a patient using sterile techniques, it is necessary to extend the drape past the distal end of the patient's appendage and pull the drape back toward the patient to cause the appendage to be located inside the envelope. This means that the drape needs to be substantially longer than the length of the appendage that it is intended to cover.
Therefore, a need existed to develop a new draping system for covering patients which was relatively simple to place over a patient's appendage, was formed of a single unit to eliminate gaps, and was relatively easy to maintain in position.